Family of shooting victim seeks clues to solve case

Sunday

DELAND -- Friends and family of a DeLand shooting victim gathered a year after his death Saturday, hoping to raise money for a private investigator who might solve his case.

Tymon Ross, 33, a DeLand musician and father of two young children, was killed Dec. 8, 2009, at a house on Helen Drive in west DeLand. His case remains one of 10 Volusia County Sheriff's Office homicide cases listed as unsolved.

"It's a slow investigation, very slow," said Ross' aunt, LaShone Ross, who said family and friends believe they know who fired the fatal shot, but lack the evidence or witness accounts to prove it.

A man who called 9-1-1 to report the shooting said a lone, masked gunman kicked in the door of the house, then robbed and shot Ross, according to the Sheriff's Office. Ross was found outside, dead from multiple gunshot wounds.

Investigators said the house was notorious for drug activity and had been raided about a year earlier, when agents toppled several components of a large cocaine-trafficking ring.

Drug charges against Ross, however, were dropped about a month before his death, according to court records.

"They had him all wrong," his aunt said. "He was not a drug dealer at all ... He was just trying to make it out of the 'hood, that's all."

She said Ross was a gambler, and he often traveled to Miami to make bets. He recorded a hip-hop album, "Slow Down Boy," and his tracks carried through the neighborhood Saturday as friends and family barbecued on Clara Avenue.

The family was selling T-shirts, CDs and other items in Ross' memory, and said the proceeds would go toward hiring an investigator to work on his case and other unsolved homicides.

One of those, she said, is the case of Terrell Barkley, a 22-year-old DeLand man found dead in his car in 2002.

Sheriff's spokesman Brandon Haught said any tips could help investigators close either case.

"The public's help is always instrumental in any investigation that we do, especially one of this nature," he said. "It doesn't matter how long it takes, whether it's the day of the incident, or a year later. If anyone knows anything, they can come forward."